1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of solar heaters for elevating the temperature of water and more particularly, to a novel solar heating apparatus having increased sun ray gathering or collecting capabilities inherently derived from the novel shape and construction thereof.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Conventional solar heaters have been used for providing an increase in the temperature of water for household use. Such previous heater assemblies generally employ solar collectors which are flat so that only one side of the collector is exposed to the sun's radiation so that solar collecting capability is very inefficient. Generally, no means are provided for exposing the opposite side of the collector to the sun's radiation at the same time that the first or top side is exposed. Therefore, great inefficiencies are encountered with the systems since only one half or a minor portion of the collector is exposed to the sun's radiation at a given time.
Although some attempts have been made to remedy this problem by incorporating motors and other movements for tracking the position of the sun with respect to the flat side of the solar collector, these systems are still inefficient since they require an additional source of power for operating the motor movements and require a complex mounting arrangement so that the collector may be movable thereon. Such construction adds to weight that further requires a substantial foundation or support to be provided on the roof of a dwelling or a building which, in turn, unduly stresses the construction of the building.
Additional attempts have been made to compensate for the movement of the sun during its daily travel about the earth which takes the form of providing a multi-sided solar collector having a multiplicity of flat surfaces which take one of several geometric forms such as a pentagonal shape when viewed from above. However, inefficient solar collection is still encountered due to the fact that only a portion of the total available collector surface is exposed to the sun at a given time. Therefore, inefficiencies in heat transfer are encountered when then sun's rays are less than perpendicular or ninety degrees to the flat collector whether the entire collector is flat or a portion thereof is flat.
In view of the foregoing, it can be seen that a long standing need has existed to provide a novel solar heating apparatus which includes a stationary or non-moving solar collector which will substantially maintain the collector surfaces perpendicular respective to the sun's radiation and to provide a non-linear solar ray collector which exposes maximum surface area to the sun's radiation.